


A Moment's Reprise

by tasteofshapes



Series: Bleach drabbles [3]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23609380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tasteofshapes/pseuds/tasteofshapes
Summary: All she gets is one more day.
Relationships: Kuchiki Rukia/Kurosaki Ichigo
Series: Bleach drabbles [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691629
Comments: 3
Kudos: 31





	A Moment's Reprise

**Author's Note:**

> @biribirichan1 prompted C: a moment's reprise. I hope you enjoy this short college AU that's been bouncing around in my head for a while!

All she gets is one more day.

“If it’s not in my inbox by 9am tomorrow, you get an automatic failing grade,” the Professor says over the din of the students walking out of the lecture theatre, and Rukia immediately turns to her assigned partner for the semester, her eyes wide. 

“Ichigo, we’re _dead_ ,” she says, panicked. She’s clutching her laptop so tightly that her knuckles have gone white.

Ichigo snorts in responses, and finishes calmly packing his bag. “We? Who is this ‘ _we’_? It’s an individual assignment, Kuchiki. I turned mine in two days ago.” He eyes her as he gets up, swinging his bag over his shoulder. A few rows away, a couple of girls who have been watching them start whispering, their gazes darting between Ichigo and Rukia.

“And you didn’t tell me?” Rukia all but yells as she glares at him. This is a betrayal of the highest order. A few rows away, the girls begin to giggle. 

Ichigo rolls his eyes and pulls out his phone. Scrolls through the messages. “I reminded you on Sunday.” He flashes the phone at her, an impatient finger tapping on the message. 

“And again on Monday.” Flash. Tap.

“And on Tuesday, this text was sent in the morning, and look! Here’s another one at night!” Flash. Tap. Flash. Tap. 

“And—”

“Okay, okay,” Rukia says, swatting his hand away. “I get your point. I was just… occupied, I guess.”

“With what, Renji?” Ichigo says, and is proud that he sounds neutral and bored instead of jealous. Because he isn’t, although there’s a twist in his chest when he says Renji’s name. 

“No. With my family.” Rukia doesn’t elaborate more than that, and Ichigo doesn’t ask, just nods and waits for her to finish packing her laptop into her bag. He knows that family is a sore topic with her, and that she has an impatient horde of elder relatives in the wings, waiting for her to graduate so that they can start marketing her to prospective husbands. He’s seen Rukia get drunk and upset on more than one drinking session; knows first hand how much pressure there is on her to become the perfect Kuchiki like her brother. 

“Can I count on you for a study date later? At say, four?” Rukia says as they begin walking out. Even though he unconsciously slows down to accommodate her, she still ends up taking two steps to every one of his. 

Ichigo snorts again, and hopes that his face hasn’t betrayed him and the way his heart had sped up at the word ‘date’. “You mean, can you count on me to help you write that essay later.”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Rukia says. No point lying when they both know that’s the truth. “I have an unopened tub of mint chocolate chip in the freezer that has your name on it…”

“Fine,” Ichigo says, sighing. There’s a crowd waiting at the elevator, and all it takes is them exchanging a look before they turn as one and make for the staircase. “But you owe me dinner. And not some shitty hole-in-the-wall joint, I want a fancy Italian lobster pasta. That’s the price of my help, take or leave it.”

“Oh my god, you mercenary. And here I thought you were helping me out of the goodness of your heart.” 

“Happy to disabuse you of that idealistic world view,” Ichigo says, smirking. She makes a face and rolls her eyes at him, which shouldn’t be attractive at all. And yet, he somehow finds himself biting back a smile. 

They pause once they reach the front entrance of the building. “So, see you at four?”

“Yeah,” Ichigo says, and hopes she doesn’t catch on to how much he’s looking forward to it. “Later, Rukia.”


End file.
